capped gas

margaret_rake

British gas have offered me a capped price until 2011 at my current rate and offered to switch my electricty to themselves. I have never switched suppliers and currently have british gas and n power what should i do?

smevs

I've had the same call tonight !
I get my Gas through BG and electricity through Southern and BG are offering to duel-fuel me and fix the rate for 3 years.
I was hoping that somebody here ight have some solid advice on whether this is a good idea or not.
I did ask him "What happens if the fuel prices come down ?" to which he said that you can opt out at any time although there is a £30 penalty for doing so ! Is there any liklihood that gas/electric prices are going to go down or is it better to fix now ???

Cardew

There are scores of posts in several threads in this section on the merits and demerits of taking a capped/fixed price tariff.

1carminestocky

Question: Have BG ever rung you to offer Click 5 (by a huge margin their cheapest tariff)? No? Join the club! BG are a cynical company who prey on people's fears IMO. They're just soooo unsubtle: Put the price of their already ridiculously expensive standard tariff up by a ludicrous amount then bring out fixed deals at a 'premium' to the afore-mentioned tariff and watch the punters take the bait! Easy money. Even people who should know better (so-called 'experts' :rolleyes: ) have fallen for this pathetic trick. Stay away from this 'deal'. IMHO, of course.

Joyful

There is no premium on top of the price rise. I think in a couple of years we may have a situation like now in that when people took out Fixed Price 2010 ( including me) many people said they did not think prices would rise. I know I personally prefer the money now in my pockets due to saving on the increases. No one can say with any certainty what will happen in the long term but most experts are saying to expect rises now. It just remains to be seen by how much. People will have to make their own decisions to fix or not.

Also as has been said before many people are on the Click Tariffs so BG must have advertised this in some way. This is often done through the media not necessarily through the post.

1carminestocky

Joyful wrote: »

There is no premium on top of the price rise. I think in a couple of years we may have a situation like now in that when people took out Fixed Price 2010 ( including me) many people said they did not think prices would rise. I know I personally prefer the money now in my pockets due to saving on the increases. No one can say with any certainty what will happen in the long term but most experts are saying to expect rises now. It just remains to be seen by how much. People will have to make their own decisions to fix or not.

Also as has been said before many people are on the Click Tariffs so BG must have advertised this in some way. This is often done through the media not necessarily through the post.

You seem to be forgetting you have paid 'over the odds' compared to the cheapest tarrif on the market for quite a long time. These 'advance overpayments' compared to the cheapest tariff you could have got (and we certainly aint talking BG's standard rate here, which is the rate your 2010 fix is allied to) MUST be taken into account in any claim of making savings on a fixed product. To really extract the urine from people like yourself who went for the 2010 fix, BG then decided to introduce their way cheaper Click tariffs a year later. By fixing with BG all you are basically doing is guaranteeing you a 'fixed rate' which is based on (historically) the most expensive tariff on the market.

And as for 'experts' and their predictions, there were many an expert predicting oil would be $200 a barrel by now. Be wary of 'experts'. They are like everybody else, they can't see the future.

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

Put the price of their already ridiculously expensive standard tariff up by a ludicrous amount then bring out fixed deals at a 'premium' to the afore-mentioned tariff and watch the punters take the bait!

Just for once couldn't you bring yourself to admit you are wrong - just once?

Instead I suppose we will get the normal bluster!

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

Just for once couldn't you bring yourself to admit you are wrong - just once?

Instead I suppose we will get the normal bluster!

Nope, you will get a link to an article!

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/article.html?in_article_id=403893&in_page_id=5

Here's the interesting bit:


[quote]
WARNING: This deal is a stinker

British Gas is running a multi-million pound advertising campaign urging customers to lock into a fixed-rate tariff at high prices - days after 16m households were told they faced higher bills and just when experts predict that fuel costs will fall.
Last week, the energy giant with 17m customers pushed up gas and electricity prices by 14.2%. It blamed this on the rising wholesale cost of buying gas and electricity.

Last week, the energy giant with 17m customers pushed up gas and electricity prices by 14.2%. It blamed this on the rising wholesale cost of buying gas and electricity.
[/quote]

Who's wrong? Me? You?

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

Nope, you will get a link to an article!

I thought so - more bluster!

Read this quote of yours again - S L O W L Y and perhaps you will see that it is like so many of your posts e.g. wrong

Put the price of their already ridiculously expensive standard tariff up by a ludicrous amount then bring out fixed deals at a 'premium' to the afore-mentioned tariff and watch the punters take the bait!

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

I thought so - more bluster!

Read this quote of yours again - S L O W L Y and perhaps you will see that it is like so many of your posts e.g. wrong

'Afore-mentioned' being the standard tariff . Looks like the ASA also thought BG were extracting the urine with their ads for Price Protection 2010:

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/non_broadcast/Adjudication+Details.htm?Adjudication_id=40609

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

'Afore-mentioned' being the standard tariff . Looks like the ASA also thought BG were extracting the urine with their ads for Price Protection 2010:

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/non_broadcast/Adjudication+Details.htm?Adjudication_id=40609

More bluster!

I am talking specifically about your statement of a premium on the 2011 tariff. Not if it is a good deal or not!

Just look at your statement again and admit it is wrong - it really is not difficult. Read it, understand it(not easy for you I suppose) and admit it is wrong!